According to the 2017 census, Pakistan is now the seventh most populous country in the world, with a population growth rate of 2.4 percent. Moreover, Pakistan’s urban population has grown at a rate of 2.7 percent. A history of poor planning and implementation has resulted in a major urban housing crisis with tens of millions of people living in ‘katchi abadis’ without security of tenure, while scores of people have been forced to live on sidewalks and underneath bridges. There is now stark evidence that housing demand far outstrips the rate at which it is supplied.
CDPR in collaboration with the International Growth Center hosted a session of the Lahore Policy Exchange on ‘the urban housing crisis’ on the 5th of March 2019 at CDPR.